Investment firms should be well versed in the value afforded through a data-centric investment book of record. An IBOR, most well know, centralizes and automates a firm’s investment data to allow for one consolidated view into both start-of-day and intra-day investment positions. It differs from an ABOR, or accounting book of record, in that it’s less focused on the historical data needed for end-of-day bookkeeping and designed for real-time needs, such as collateral and cash management, exposure reporting and compliance. Where an IBOR can sometimes fall short, however, is when the front office tries to stretch its functionality to provide performance and attribution data or perform comprehensive risk analysis.

Enter PBOR. Effectively a superset of IBOR, a data-centric PBOR provides a “true” total view of performance results, exposure analysis and enriched data across business lines and asset classes, at an even more granular level of detail. A PBOR provides firms with capabilities around data management and governance, workflow automation, data enrichment, and source-data traceability and validation. Accommodating both industry-standard and customizable performance calculation rules, PBORs produce on-demand portfolio recalculations, results validations, benchmark data management and customized benchmarking, as well as portfolio aggregation and composite hierarchies.

We know that a distinct need for a PBOR already exists. In one survey of senior performance, data management and financial technology executives, roughly one in three identified that they use three or more systems to generate their performance data, and nearly one in ten, or 9% of those polled, claimed that they use ten or more systems. Beyond draining resources, when firms are required to manually aggregate and reconcile their performance data, the risk of formula or calculation errors can grow exponentially.

Eagle has published a white paper on PBOR, found here. Rich Mailhos, Product Manager, Performance Measurement, Eagle Investment Systems, will also touch upon these trends and more when he sketches out Eagle’s Performance Roadmap at ENGAGE 2015, Eagle’s client conference being held March 29 to April 1 in Scottsdale, Arizona.